MINOR PROJECT REPORT ON

CONDENSERS
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Submitted By
M Dhruva Rahul (19211A0830)
M SAI KUMAR (20215A0804)
N HARSHITH (19211A0838)
K. NAGA SHERSTA (19211A0822)
I. SIDDHARTH NAIK (19211a0817)
Under the Guidance of
Mr. KSNV PRASAD

Department of Chemical Engineering

B.V. RAJU INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
(UGG AUTONOMOUS)
(AFFILITED TO JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL
UNIVERSITY)
2021
 B.V. RAJU INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Department of Chemical Engineering

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the minor project report titled CONDENSERS is
submitted by M Dhruva Rahul (19211A0830), M SAI KUMAR (20215A0804)
N HARSHITH (19211A0830), K. NAGA SHERSTA (19211A0822), I.
SIDDHARTH (19211A0817) respectively is a bona-fide work carried out by
them in partial fulfilment for the award of B. Tech degree. This work has not
been submitted to any other University for award of any degree.

Guide Name HOD Name

Mr. KSNV Prasad Dr. G. B. Radhika
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We thank management of B. V. Raju Institute of Technology (Narsapur,

Medak) for giving us an opportunity to thank and acknowledge profusely the
following personalities who helped us to successfully complete this minor
project.
We are greatly obligated to Dr. K. Lakshmi Prasad, principal of B. V. Raju
Institute of Technology, Narsapur, for the kind encouragement given to us in
completing this project.
We express our profound thanks to our beloved Dr. G. B. Radhika,
Professor and Head of Department of Chemical Engineering for her co-
operation throughout this work and efforts for arranging this dissertation work.
It’s our privilege to work under the guidance of Mr. K.S.N.V Prasad sir,
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering who has Always
motivated us to think with audacity and to create perseverance. We express our
profound sense of gratitude and indebtedness to my teacher and supervisor.
Also, we wish to thank my project associates for their support in
completing this project work.
Project Associates
M Dhruva Rahul
19211A0830
M Sai Kumar 20215A0804
N Harshith 19211A0838
K NagaShersta 19211A0822
I Siddharth Naik 19211A0817
 ABSTRACT
There are many types of heat exchangers and one of them is Condensers.
In this project we discuss about the types and design of condensers.
We also discuss the required formulas, part of condenser, and graphs required
for calculation to design a condenser for our requirement.
we also discuss some problems on condenser such as energy balance and
material balance of condensers.
 INDEX
CONTENTS PAGE NO.
CHAPTER 1 1 – 11
1.INTRODUCTION 1
2.Air cooled condenser and its types 2
3.Water cooled condenser and its types 4
4.Evaporator condensers 7
5.Design of condenser (shell and tube) 8
6.Advantages and Disadvantages of condenser 11

CHAPTER 2 12 - 22
(CALCULATIONS REQUIRED FOR DESIGNING A CONDENSER)
1.Types of Flow in Double pipe Heat Exchanger 12
2.Viscosity of Fluid at Average Temperature 14
3.Viscosity of Fluid at Atmospheric Pressure 15
4. Thermal conductivity of liquids 17
5.Calculation of LMTD 18
6.Calculation of heat transfer coefficient inside the tube 19
7.Calculation of heat transfer coefficient outside the tube 20
8.Calculation of overall heat transfer coefficient with
dirt factors 21
9.calculation of pressure drop 22

CHAPTER 3 23 – 25
1.Energy Balance Problem 23
2.Material Balance Problem 24
REFERENCE 26
INTRODUCTION
Condensation is a process through which the physical state of matter changes
from the gaseous phase into the liquid phase.
The process is carried out by an instrument called Condenser.
A condenser is a heat exchanger used to condense a gas substance into a liquid
state through cooling. A condenser makes use of condensing medium such as
air or water, that absorbs heat from a vapor.
As the vapor loses its heat to the condensing medium, its temperature decreases
to saturation point and then it condenses to liquid.
Generally maximum chemical industries the shell and tube type condensers are
used.
TYPES OF CONDENSERS
CONDENSER

AIR COOLED WATER COOLED EVAPORATIVE

CONDENSERS CONDENSERSCONDENSERS

NATURAL FORCED

DOUBLE PIPE SHELL AND COIL SHELL ANDTUBE

AIR COOLED CONDENSER:
Condensers of this type use air as the external fluid to reject the heat from the
system. Air-cooled condensers usually have copper coils where refrigerant
flows in.
There are mainly two types ofair-cooled condensers, they are,
1. Natural convection condenser.
2. Forced convection condenser.

NATURAL CONVECTION CONDENSER:

In natural convection condenser the heat transfer from the condenser is by
buoyancy induced natural convection and radiation.
The flow rate of air and radiation heat transfer are smalltherefore the combined
heat transfer coefficient is small.
These condensers are used for small capacity refrigeration.(freezers)
The natural convection type condensers are either plate surface or finned tube.
The plate surface condensers are used in small refrigerators and freezers.
The whole body (except the door) acts like a fin.
This type of condensers are called flat back condensers.
The finned type is the type which we regularly see in our household
refrigerators.
FORCED CONVECTION CONDENSERS:
In the forced convection condenser, the circulation of air over the condenser
surface is maintained by using fan or blower.
They use fin on airside for good heat transfer, and they are mainly plate type or
annular type.
These types of condensers,are mainly used for air-conditioner, water cooler, and
packaged air conditioning plants.
The forced convection condenser is either chassis mounted or remoted mounted.
The area of the condenser seen from outside in the air flow direction is called
face area.
The velocity at the face is called face velocity.
The coils of the tube in the flow direction ae called rows.
A condenser may have 2 to 8 rows of tubes carrying the refrigerant.
The moist air flows over the fins and the refrigerant flow inside the tube.
The fins are usually made of aluminum and tubes are made of copper.
WATER COOLED CONDENSER:
This type of condenser uses water as fluid to remove heat from the refrigerant.
It is obvious that water-cooled condensers are used where we have an adequate
supply of water.
There are mainly three types of water-cooled condensers, they are
1. Double tube
2. Shell and Coil
3. Shell and Tube

DOUBLE PIPE CONDENSER:

Double pipe condensers are normally used up to 10 TR capacity.
These condensers the cold-water flows through the inner tube, while the
refrigerant flows through the annulus in counter flow.
Headers are used at both the ends to make the length of the condenser small and
reduce pressure drop.
The refrigerant in the annulus rejects a part of its heat to the surroundings by
free convection and radiation.
The heat transfer coefficient is usually low because of poor liquid refrigerant
drainage if the tubes are long.
SHELL AND COIL TYPE CONDENSER:
These condensers are used in systems up to 50 TR capacity.
The water flows through multiple coils, which may have fins to increase the
heat transfer coefficient.
The refrigerant flows through the shell. In smaller capacity condensers,
refrigerant flows through coils while water flows through the shell.
When water flows through the coils, cleaning is done by circulating suitable
chemicals through the coils.
SHELL AND TUBE TYPE CONDENSER:
This is the most common type of condenser used in systems from 2 TR up to
thousands of TR capacity.
In these condensers the refrigerant flows through the shell while water flows
through the tubes in single to four passes.
The condensed refrigerant collects at the bottom of the shell.
The coldest water contacts the liquid refrigerant so that some subcooling can
also be obtained.
The liquid refrigerant is drained from the bottom to the receiver. There might be
a vent connecting the receiver to the condenser for smooth drainage of liquid
refrigerant, The shell also acts as a receiver.
Further the refrigerant also rejects heat to the surroundings from the shell. The
most common type is horizontal shell type.
Vertical shell-and-tube type condensers are usually used with ammonia in large
capacity systems so that cleaning of the tubes is possible from top while the
plant is running.
Evaporative Condensers:
The last one of the types of condensers is the evaporative one. It is the mix of an
air-cooled and water-cooled condenser. Evaporative condensers use air and
water as the condensing medium.
Evaporative condensers combine the features of a cooling towerand water-
cooled condenser in a single unit.
In these condensers, the water is sprayed from top part on a bank of tubes
carrying the refrigerant and air is induced upwards.
There is a thin water film around the condenser tubes from which evaporative
cooling takes place.
The heat transfer coefficient for evaporative cooling is very large.
Hence, the refrigeration system can be operated at low condensing temperatures
(about 11 to 13 K above the wet bulb temperature of air).
The water spray countercurrent to the airflow acts as cooling tower.
The role of air is primarily to increase the rate of evaporation of water.
The required air flow rates are in the range of 350 to 500 m3 /h per TR of
refrigeration capacity.
DESIGN OF CONDENSER:
The design of condenser is similar to a typical shell and tube exchanger.
A condenser must have a vent for removal of non-condensable gas.
The non-condensable gas decreases the heat transfer rate.
The most common materials in a condenser are copper-nickel alloys, brass,
titanium, stainless steel and ferrite stainless steel.
MAIN PARTS OF CONDENSER:
SHELL:
Shell is the container for the shell fluid and the tube bundle is placed inside the
shell.
Shell diameter should be selected in such a way to give a close fit of the tube
bundle.
TUBE:
Tube OD of ¾ and 1‟‟ are very common to design a compact heat exchanger.
The most efficient condition for heat transfer is to have the maximum number
of tubes in the shell to increase turbulence.
TUBE PITCH:
Tube pitch is the shortest center to center distance between the adjacent tubes.
The tubes are generally placed in square or triangular patterns (pitch).

TUBE PASSES:
The number of passes is chosen to get the required tube side fluid velocity to
obtain greater heat transfer co-efficient and, also to reduce scale formation.
The tube passes vary from 1 to 16.
BAFFLES:
Baffles are used to increase the fluid velocity by diverting the flow across the
tube bundle to obtain higher transfer co-efficient.
The distance between adjacent baffles is called baffle spacing.
The baffle spacing of 0.2 to 1 times of the inside shell diameter is commonly
used.
ADVANTAGES OF CONDENSER:
1. Heat exchange through direct contact, thus less water quantity required.
2. Construction is simpler thus less costly.
3. Maintenance is simple and cheap.
4. Requires small floor space.
DISADVANTAGES OF CONDENSER:
1. If condensate contains impurities, it can’t be reused.
2. Low vacuum efficiency hence not suitable for larger plants.
3. More power required for air pump.
PART 2
DOUBLE PIPE CONDENSER DESIGN:
The double pipe condenser is one of the simplest condensers which consists of
two concentric pipes. Since, it has such configuration it is also called as hairpin
as it looks like hairpin due to the return band.
In the double pipe condenser two fluids will be flowing. In the inner pipe one
fluid and in the outer pipe another fluid. The flow in the double pipe condenser
is of two types, they are,
1. Parallel flow
2. Counter flow
In parallel flow both hot and cold fluid flows in one direction as they enter at
same end and exits at the same end.
But in counter flow both fluid flow in opposite direction as they enter at
different ends and exits at different ends.
The double pipe condensers are extremely flexible with respect to the
configuration of hair pins. The both outer and inner pipes can be connected in
series or in parallel configuration.

Design of double pipe condenser

For the design of a double pipe condenser first, we have to consider over-
surface and over-design.
Over-design means if we provide extra area as we have to consider dirt-factor.
Over-surface means it is the measure of the safety factor of the compound
which is taken in the design of the condenser through fouling factor and use of
standard equipment sizes.
A - AC
Percentage of over-surface = -----------------------
AC

Where A = Actual heat transfer surface area (dirt condition)

Ac = Calculated heat transfer surface area
Over-surface depends on the relative magnitude of the total fouling factor and
the wall resistance. If the value of over-surface is between 20 – 40 % it is
considered as typical. If it is higher than it is not typical.
There are different steps in designing a double pipe condenser, they are
1. Collection of the physical properties at average temperature of fluid.
The property which we have to find is viscosity of the fluid at average
temperature.
The average temperature is the arithmetic mean of inlet and outlet
temperatures.
The above graph helps us to find the viscosity of the fluid at average
temperature.
With the help of the above table, we can find the X and Y values which helps us
to find the viscosity of the fluid at atmospheric pressure.
Then we have to find viscosity of gases at average temperature.
With the help of the above table, we can find X and Y values and also viscosity
of the gases at atmospheric pressure and at average temperature.
We also have to find the specific heat of liquids.

With help of the above graph and table we can find the specific heat of the
liquids.
We also have to find the thermal conductivity of liquids.
The above table shows us the thermal conductivity of liquids which helps us
find the thermal conductivity which we need.
Step 2: Calculation of LMTD
In both counter and parallel-flow the formula for calculation of LMTD is
(T2 – T4) – (T1 – T3)
LMTD = ---------------------------------
Ln ((T2 – T4) / (T1 – T3))
The above equation is for the parallel flow.

(T2 – T3) – (T1 – T4)

LMTD = ---------------------------------
Ln ((T2 – T3) / (T1 – T4))
The above equation is for the counter flow.
Here T1 and T3 are entry temperatures of hot and cold fluids and T2 and T4 are
exit temperatures of hot and cold fluids.
Step 3:
The calculation of heat transfer coefficient inside the tube.
We calculate the heat transfer coefficient at different flow rates using different
correlation.
If the flow is turbulent flow (Re >= 10^4), we use the Seider-Tate equation and
the equation is
Nu = 0.023Re^0.8*Pr^(1/3)* (u/uw )^0.14
Where u = viscosity at average temperature
Uw = viscosity at wall temperature.
If the flow is in transition region (2100 < Re < 10^4), we use the Hausen
equation and the equation is
Nu = 0.116 [ Re^(2/3) – 125]*Pr^(u/uw)^0.14*[ 1 +
(Di/L)^(2/3)]
If the flow is laminar flow (Re <= 2100), we again use the Seider – Tate
equation. But this equation is different form the above equation. We use Di in
this equation.
The equation is
Nu = 1.86[Re*Pr*(Di/L)]^(1/3)*(u/uw)^0.14
For determining the values of Di we use the following table
With the help of pipe-size we can find the Di.
Schedule number:
It decides the thickness of the wall of the pipe.
Step 4:
The calculation of heat transfer coefficient outside the tube.
For the calculation of heat transfer coefficient outside the tube we need
equivalent diameter.
Ho = (k/De) * 0.166[Re^ (2/3) – 125] Pr^ (1/3)
We know that
De = (4* flow area/wetted perimeter)
De = (4*(3.14)*(Do^2 – Di^2)/4*(3.14)Di)
De = (Do^2 – Di^2)/Di
D’e = Do – Di
Step 5:
Calculations wall temperature of pipe:
Tw = (Hi*Tavg + Ho*(Do/Di)Tavg)/Hi + Ho(Do/Di)
Here:
Tw = wall temperature
Hi = heat transfer coefficient inside of pipe
Ho = heat transfer coefficient outside of pipe
Tavg = average temperature
Do = outer diameter
Di = inner diameter
Step 6:
Calculation of viscosity correction factor
For turbulent flow viscosity correction factor is (u/uw)^0.14
For laminar flow the viscosity correction factor is (u/uw)^0.25
Step 7:
Calculation of overall heat transfer coefficient with dirt factors
UD = [(Do/Hi*Di) + (Do*ln(Do/Di)/2k) + (1/Ho) + (( RDi*Do)/Di) + RDo]^-1
Where RDo = dirt factor in outer pipe
RDi = dirt factor in inner pipe
Step 8:
Calculation of required surface area and number of hairpins
q = UDATLMTD
A= (q/UDTLMTD)
L = A/circumference
No of hairpins = (L/2*length of one hairpin)
Step 9:
Step 10:
If the calculated pressure drop is within the range which we want then it is the
final design of condenser.
Step 11:
If the calculated pressure drop is not within the range, then we should switch the
fluids as inner tube fluid to outer tube and outer tube fluid to the inner tube.
Also, we must change the hairpin configuration to parallel configuration.

\
Part 3
Calculation:
1. ENERGY BALANCE CALCULATION
A steam is cooled in a condenser using cooling water. The steam
enters the condenser at 20 kPa and a quality of 0.9, and exits at 20 kPa
as saturated liquid.The steam flow rate 3 kg/s. The cooling water
enters the condenser at 18 °C and exits at 40 °C. Average heat
capacity of the cooling water is Cp,average = 4.2 kJ/kg °C. Estimate
the mass flow rate of the cooling water.

Data to be Provided further: H1 Sat Liq = 251.4 kJ/kg; H1 Sat Vap =

2609.7 kJ/kg ; H2= 251.4 kJ/kg
Assuming this as a steady-state system,
Changes in kinetic energy and potential energies are negligible. Steam
flow rate: m0s = 3 kg/s
Cooling water enters at T3 = 180 C and leaves at T4 = 400 C
Cp,average = 4.2 kJ/kg °C.
Steam is saturated liquid and vapor mixture: P1 = 20 kPa; x1 = 0.9 H1
Sat Liq = 251.4 kJ/kg; H1 Sat Vap = 2609.7 kJ/kg
H1 = (1- x1) H1 Sat Liq + x1 H1 Sat Vap = 2373.9 KJ/kg
Exit: saturated liquid at P2 = 20 kPa; H2= 251.4 kJ/kg
Energy balance: heat removed by the cooling water = heat lost by the
steam m0w Cp,average (T4-T3) = - m0s (H2-H1)
m0w = 69.24 kg/s
 2. MATERIAL BALANCE ON CONDENSER:
Problem:-
In the operation of synthetic ammonia plant a 1:3 Nitrogen and Hydrogen is fed
into the converter resulting in a 25% conversion to Ammonia. The Ammonia
formed is separated by condensation through condenser and the unconverted
gases recycled to the reactor. The initial Nitrogen- Hydrogen mixture contains
0.20 part of Argon to 100 parts of N2- H2 mixture. The toleration limit of
Argon in the reactor is assumed to be 5 parts to 100 parts of N2- H2 volume.
Estimate the fraction of recycle which must be continuously purged.
Solution:-

Fresh feed 100lb moles

N2+ H2
Reactor Condenser

Basis:- 100 parts of N2-H2

Reaction takes place= N2+3H2=> 2NH3
Here, Nitrogen is not an inert substance because it involves in reaction and
forms a compound. So, Argon is an inert substance.
Let’s assume 100 moles of N2-H2 in fresh feed
x= moles of N2 and H2 recycled to reactor.
y= moles of N2 and H2 bled off or purged.
Moles of N2 and H2 entering reactor=100+x
Moles of N2 and H2 leaving reactor= 0.75(100+x)
25% used &75% left
Moles of Argon in fresh feed= 0.20
Maximum moles of Argon in total feed=0.05(100+x)
Moles of Argon per mole of N2-H2 leaving condenser= 0.05(100+x) /
0.75(100+x) =0.067
Moles of Argon bled off=0.067y
When a steady state of operation is attained, the Argon purged is equal to the
Argon in fresh feed.
Material Balance at junction B for Argon is =
0.05(100+x)= 0.067(x+y)
6.7 moles of Argon leaving the condenser per 100 moles of N2-H2 mixture.
Material Balance at junction A for Argon is
0.05(100+x)= 0.2+0.067x
0.067y=0.2
y=2.98
x=282
Recycle Ratio= Quantity of Recycled feed / Quantity of Fresh feed
= 282/100= 2.82
Purge Ratio= Quantity of Purged feed/ Quantity of Recycled feed
2.98/282 = 0.0105.
REFERENCES:
1. MacCabe and Smith 7th edition Text Book
2. NPTEL Videos
3. Online Research Documents
4. Internet etc
CONCLUSION:
Condensers are used in air conditioning, industrial chemical processes such as distillation,
steam power plants and other heat-exchange systems. Use of cooling water or surrounding air
as the coolant is common in many condensers.In this Project, we have discussed about
Condenser, types of Condensers, design of condensers and problems associated with it.